To Inspire, Transform & Heal

Linda Wiggen Kraft
Creativity for the Soul

Deepening Our Written and Painted Prayers

How to deepen and embody personal prayers through journaling, color, calligraphy and paint has been my quest for months.

Knowing deep longings and truths is often revealed in creative personal journal writing. Discovering those truths and bringing them to the surface is the first step. Embodying and enlivening them through painted colors and words written in personal calligraphy and writing expressions, grounds and enlivens them.

These are prayer books created to hold individual prayers that begin with journal writing on one side. The essence of that writing reveals a longing that becomes visible and stronger through calligraphic words and colors on the other side.

Last fall I was asked to return and teach at Art & Soul Retreat – Personal and Liturgical Creative Expression, a five day artistic retreat near Asheville, N.C.  It takes place at Kanuga, an Episcopal retreat center, with 1400 acres of Blue Ridge Mountains, woods, lake, spirituality and serenity. 

The retreat’s theme this year, “The Art of Growing Our Souls”, gives a name to what always takes places both during the course and afterward.

Each time I am asked to return to teach at these retreats, my heart fills with joy. A knowing also that I will be lead to a deep path of my own learning as I prepare, initially scares me.  What will I teach and how can I ever bring it into being?  

I have to live and explore what will be shared before I teach.  I have lived what I share here and for me it has been a growing of my soul.

My hope is that all who partake in this very special retreat will experience the same. I am delighted that my dear friend Kelly Larson will bring her gifts to the teaching of this course. There are other courses also, all to deepen creativity in a spiritual way.

Here is a sharing on my journey so far.  Working with the power of color is the start.  Creating colors on beautiful papers that align with the inner colors of body and spirit is the beginning. Knowing the religious, spiritual, scientific and healing dimensions of colors, I choose a paper for that day’s journal page.

Writing is done in a quiet meditative space. The writing revels the seeds of something deep that wants expression. The essence of those seeds is then brought to light with easy personal style calligraphy and other ways of creating beautiful words. These words are expressed on the other side of the journal writing. These forms of writing, calligraphy and painting are both an art and a meditation.

The individual painted prayers are held in a “book” that is created from a large painted page that embraces the colors and shapes that speak to a depth inside.

This larger sheet of painted paper is stitched together with cover colors that again speak to the artist creating the book. The pages are folded together to hold these deeply personal prayers that can be taken out and referred to often.

The pages are held in place with a button, thick threads and beads.  The beauty and depth of what has been created has certainly allowed me to experience the art of growing my soul. 

I hope these books and prayers are an inspiration for you.

ENJOY & CREATE

 

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